This has been more common on Spanish language broadcasts even in the US. This is a MLS thread (now merged with another thread). People are forgetting that we have already seen boxes and split screens with the current MLS broadcasters during MLS games.
I started reducing my watching of NFL about 35 years back when I moved to a city that didn't have NFL. About 10 years ago I stopped virtually completely and have resolved to not go back because of the head injury debacle. I feel similarly about college football, though I watched it much longer. But, if we are honest, there are issues in soccer with head injuries. It may be they are being addressed with officials calling stoppage on apparent head injury. Still, there is a strong momentum from way back that players not be pulled from games when showing concussion symptoms.
Yes. Soccer can definitely do much better than it is now. Current protocols are being half-assed. But football is on a different level from everyone else when it comes to head injury.
It seems unfair that a team has to play 5 minutes with 10 men often through no fault of their own. Revolving substitutions for head injuries would be an option but I can foresee the possibility of players faking head injuries to bring on a sub for a particular situation, like free-kicks or corners.
Yeah, that is an absolute no go. Like you said it would be constantly abused. I say the simplest solution is stop the clock for head injuries and let them be observed properly. That way there is no real advantage to faking and the players safety is put first. In all honesty I am tired of the constant running clock. I understand that is how it has always been, but I don't care. I think the clock should be stopped for any injuries that the player needs trainers for (or the ref stops the game for). This should lower faking as there would be no time wasting benefit and it would give players the time needed to be evaluated.
Blashphemer!! You know you now made "the List" with those kind of irreverent thoughts! Better take that back before a piano drops on you!
Haha. I am more tired of the time wasting tactics. Stopping the clock for injuries would cut some of that out.
Then the clock will need to be less than 45 minutes, You do not want a soccer game to become as long as a baseball game.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Head injuries are not the only reason a player might spend a few minutes on the sideline. Sometimes it can be a cut or a muscle injury. If a coach is so stressed over it, use a sub. If it becomes a massive problem, I'd rather add a 4th sub than stopping the clock. Right now soccer fits pretty neatly into a 2 hour TV window. Stopping the clock would just be the trojan horse that brings full 30 second commercials into the game. And this would also be abused by teams. Why not fake a head injury to create a 5 minute time out and stop the opponent's momentum. No thank you. Bad idea.
Paul, if you are still posting this list, can you include the wk 1 NFL games for comparison to the ESPN/Fox games from Sunday 9/10? Thx, Jay!
NYG-DAL NBC 24.366M SEA-GB FOX 22.796M KC-NE NBC 21.791M Various CBS 13.337M NO-MIN ESPN 11.392M PHI-WSH FOX 11.342M LAC-DEN ESPN 9.938M
September 5-10, 2017 Costa Rica / Mexico 2,700,000 —; — Telemundo; 2700000 América / Veracruz 1,218,000 Univision; 749000 UDN; 469000 Pachuca / Chivas 1,171,000 Univision; 740000 UDN; 431000 Man Utd / Stoke City 946,000 NBC; 876000 Unvso; 70000 Honduras / USMNT 531,000 beIN; 256000 Unvso; 275000 Pumas / Tijuana 521,000 Univision; 521000 —; — Swansea / Newcastle 509,000 NBCSN; 294000 Telemundo; 215000 Barcelona / Espanyol 374,000 beIN; 86000 beIE; 288000 Liverpool / Man City 358,000 NBCSN; 329000 Unvso; 29000 Arsenal / Bournemouth 351,000 NBCSN; 300000 Unvso; 51000 Santos / Toluca 250,000 —; — UDN; 250000 Seattle Sounders / Los Angeles Galaxy 220,000 FS1; 169000 FOXD; 51000 Burnley / Crystal Palace 200,000 NBCSN; 200000 —; — Puebla / Cruz Azul 195,000 —; — UDN; 195000 Columbus Crew / Sporting Kansas City 187,000 ESPN; 187000 ESPND; — Querétaro / León 180,000 —; — UDN; 180000 Chicago Fire / New York Red Bulls 158,000 UniMás; 158000 —; — Spurs / Everton 141,000 CNBC; 141000 —; — Atlanta United / FC Dallas 109,000 FS1; 88000 FOXD; 21000 Freiburg / Dortmund 104,000 FS1; 87000 FOXD; 17000 Hoffenheim / Bayern 64,000 —; — UDN; 64000 Kansas City / Red Stars 56,000 Lifetime; 56000 —; — Monterrey / Necaxa 53,000 —; — Gala; 53000 Hertha / Bremen 39,000 FS1; 32000 FOXD; 7000 Hamburg / Leipzig 36,000 FS2; 36000 —; — Mönchengladbach / Frankfurt 12,000 —; — UDN; 12000 Remember that was hurricane weekend.
Watched the Chargers game on CBS. Great advertisement for the stadium itself, but not good for the Galaxy or MLS I'd say. They showed a timelapse for the overnight conversion of the stadium from soccer to football. Then they showed the soccer score (4-0), and the color guy goes "WOOWWWW that's a very high score for soccer". Then they come back to it a few minutes later with the guy saying "wait, did one of the teams play without a goalie"? UGH. Anyway, we just had an MLS score highlighted on a game with 7m+ people watching. Can't be too bad of a thing I suppose...
Don't sweat the dismissive comments from the NFL announcers. They don't have a clue and never will. The growth of MLS doesn't depend on converting a bunch of older, white-male NFL fans anyway. Some of us (older white males) already like soccer, but those that don't aren't going to give it a chance. However, soccer is the most popular sport among fans 25 years or younger these days and its popular with minorities and women. It's also well-suited for TV with its 2 hour broadcast window (2 1/2 hours including pre-game and post-game comments and ads), 9-month season including playoffs, and growing national footprint where almost all the major media markets are now covered. Those factors make it appealing to both broadcasters and advertisers and its the reason the TV contract gets bigger with each renewal. With all the sports broadcasters competing for content these days, and with eventual expansion to 28 teams coming soon, I honestly think the MLS TV contract will double the next time its negotiated. Meanwhile, both MLS and European soccer get score updates on ESPN and Fox, and game highlights are featured prominently in their highlight shows and "top ten" segments. Soccer still needs more coverage on the local TV news, on sports talk radio, and more column inches in the local newspaper (regardless of online or print format), but there is significant progress being made in terms of TV exposure, in-person game attendance, and scores/highlights updates.
I like to tell casuals that MLS is somewgsr arrested development by soccer dismissive boomers in the wild and in positions of power in the media (I'm a boomer technically ) who will never accept soccer as a major sport But that's ok. We are dying off real quick. And the MLS ownership groups still living in 1.0 land will also die off. The future is actually very bright MLS 4.0 is actually being expedited by NFL and MLB which are taking their privileged positions in the sports landscape for granted. They will not remain top dogs forever
Actually, I'd say NFL and MLB owners are taking an interest in MLS. MLB owners with stake in LAFC and NYC, NFL with Atlanta and Seattle and obviously New England...
An update on the OTA FOX numbers from Sunday: Higher than last year, I believe. We’ll see it again next year too... and hopefully with even better games. https://t.co/ZDKTcaw0hL— Jonathan Tannenwald (@thegoalkeeper) September 26, 2017 If you recall, FOX experimented with this MLS/NFL doubleheader for the first time last year and the MLS games drew 1.298 million combined viewers in 2016. So MLS saw a slight uptick for 2017 with 1.35 million viewers. Hopefully it's enough to convince FOX to keep the experiment going in 2018.
LEADOFF: How Braves, Atlanta United compared in TV ratings Wednesday Both the Braves and Atlanta United had games televised on Fox’s regional sports networks Wednesday night, and they drew almost identical Nielsen ratings in the Atlanta TV market. http://www.ajc.com/sports/leadoff-h...red-ratings-wednesday/07skuT7e4HlwB4MQk2TCNM/
http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/201...ost-watched-years-premier-league-wnba-finals/ The WNBA is not doing so hot.
Most-watched soccer games on US TV for September 11-17, 2017 14 9/17/17 MLS Red Bulls / Union ESPN; 259000 —; — 259,000 15 9/16/17 MLS Atlanta United / Orlando City Univision; 194000 UDN; 62000 256,000 39 9/13/17 NASL Indy Eleven / North Carolina beIN; 4000 —; — 4,000 https://worldsoccertalk.com/2017/09/21/most-watched-soccer-games-on-us-tv-for-september-11-17-2017/ Here are the most-watched soccer games on US TV for September 19-24, 2017: 1 9/24/17 MLS Kansas City/Atlanta / Los Angeles/Montreal FOX; 1350000(145K with Spanish and Online views). 10 9/23/17 MLS New York City / Houston Dynamo UniMás; 103000 UDN; 31000 134,000 11 9/24/17 MLS Portland Timbers / Orlando City FS1; 110000 FOXD; 23000 133,000 16 9/23/17 NWSL Pride / Thorns Lifetime; 82000 —; — 82,000 https://worldsoccertalk.com/2017/09/29/watched-soccer-games-us-tv-september-19-24-2017/
BTW, this surprises me, I was expecting Liga MX would be #1. League averages this season: League Viewers EPL 517,061 LMX 464,429 MLS 263,465 NWSL 94,143
Lakers telecast pushes Galaxy to the side for a night Some info for the ratings inclined: "A Charter spokeswoman said the Galaxy’s TV ratings are up this season, to an average of about 9,000 viewers a game. But that’s less than the 11,000 homes a game the team’s broadcasts averaged in its previous deal with Fox Sports West. By way of comparison Real Salt Lake, the Galaxy’s opponent Saturday, is seen in as many as 45,000 Utah households per game on an over-the-air channel, according to Trey Fitz-Gerald, the team’s vice president of broadcast and public relations."